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Making a stew for the g’rents, so its key that I hide as much veg in there as possible (making sure they get their nutrients and fibre is essential, but if they see a hint of green I’m in trouble and they’ll turn their noses up at my delicious stew!).

We sweated some onions in a large casserole dish with a glug of olive oil and in another pan cooked up the round steak (cut in to bite size chunks) until crispy and brown. When the meat was done we put it all to the side.

Then when onions are soft we added 1kg of carrots, a large courgette from the garden, a tablespoon of mustard, a small handful of rosemary, 2 tablespoons of Worcester sauce, 1 bottle of Guinness, 3 cans of chopped plum tomatoes and 1 1/2 litres of vegetable stock. Cook until reduced a bit and add the beef once there is space for it.

Continue to reduce on the stove and then place in the oven at 160 degrees centigrade for 4 hours, or until the round steak is falling apart in little fibrous delicious pieces (my mouth is watering writing this!).

A lot of recipes I find come from just having things sitting around the house, like a couple of sweet potatoes or butternut squash. This was divine, I made it again two days later because there were cries for more more more! I am also pretty casual with how I make my soups, this one ended up thicker and more of a curry, so feel free to adjust spice or veggie combos yourselves.

1 butternut squash

1-2 sweet potatoes (yams)

3-4 onions

2-3 stalks of celery

2-3 carrots

olive oil

3-4 garlic cloves

a thumb or two of ginger

ground cinnamon

ground tumeric

ground cumin

chicken/vegetable stock

400g of chopped tomatoes

Heat the oil in the bottom of a pot or the good ol’ casserole dish and throw in the onions, letting them soften, but avoid browning them, so a low heat is good. Add the lentils (you can use any type, the family is a little picky so I find they like the split red lentils more than other types) and stir, coating all the lentils in a little oil.

Throw in the carrots and celery chopped into bit size pieces, this is a nice chunky soup, so you need some chunky veg in there. Then peel and chop the sweet potatoe and butternut squash as well and pop them in the pot too. Stir and let it all cook for a little minute. Then add the garlic, crushed, and the root ginger, grated.

Add the spices, I like my spices and to quote my mother “the balance is just right here” – so 1 tablespoon of cumin, 2 1/2 teaspoons of tumeric and 2 teaspoons of cinnamon.

Then add 1 liter of stock, I used chicken, but go veggie if you’d prefer. Then I added a can of chopped tomatoes, or blitzed whole ones.

Cook until it all reduces and the squash and sweet potatoe is soft. The lentils add great body and texture to the soup.

We served it with a lime, avocado, tomatoe, mustard seed salsa and a cucumber, garlic, yoghurt thing. And a bit of naan bread. Kind of reinforcing the curry, rather than soup vibe.

Everyone has turkey left over and doesn’t always know what to do with it and there’s only so many turkey sandwiches one can eat (apparently?). This curry is pretty easy and quick to whip up.

Grab a tablespoon of mustard seeds and heat them in a large pot or casserole dish with a couple of glugs of vegetable oil until the seeds start popping. Throw in two chopped chilis and a teaspoon of fenugreek seeds and 1-2 chunks of fresh ginger (I grate it, but chopped is fine too). Stir quickly, don’t let the spices burn and then throw 3 chopped red onions on top.

Let this cook until the onions are wonderfully golden and softened.

Then add a teaspoon of chili powder and a teaspoon of tumeric. The colour change of the onions is noticeble, as the tumeric starts staining everything a lovely yellow.

Then a tin of chopped tomatoes (or blitz a can of whole plum tomatoes) is added to the pot and two glasses of water.

Whack 400ml of full fat coconut milk in (if you use reduced fat coconut milk, it looks as if its split, although its still edible!). Add a teaspoon of rock salt to season. I added a handful or two of chopped coriander at this point.

This is the perfect base sauce for a curry and anything can be added to it at this point, fish, chicken.. turkey!

Chop the turkey (600g) up into small strips and bit size chunks, this is great because you can use all the bits of the turkey that people don’t like using on their post-christmas turkey sandwiches. In a pan heat a tablespoon of lightly crushed coriander seeds and toss the turkey in it.

Then add the turkey to the sauce and simmer for 15 minutes until the turkey is soft and has soaked up the colour and spice from curry. Serve with rice for post-christmas noms (or just annual noms).